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Bye Bye Birdie (Columbia Pictures film)
Bye Bye Birdie is a musical comedy film, it is an adaptation of the stage production of the same name. The screenplay was written by Michael Stewart and Irving Brecher, with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams. Directed by George Sidney, the film version starred Dick Van Dyke, Maureen Stapleton, Janet Leigh, Paul Lynde, Bobby Rydell, Ann-Margret, and Jesse Pearson, who plays the role of teen idol Conrad Birdie. It also features a cameo appearence by Ed Sullivan, who appears as himself, the host of the popular, long-running CBS TV variety show. The story was inspired by the phenomenon of popular singer Elvis Presley and his being drafted into the United States Army in 1957. It provoked a media circus that included a contest in which Presley would give a specially selected member of the Women’s Army Corps ‘one last kiss’ before he was deployed to Germany for 18 months. Presley himself was the first choice for the role of Birdie, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, rejected the idea as he did not want Presley in any roles that were parodies of himself. Following his honorable discharge with the rank of sergeant from the military in 1960, Presley was still a huge celebrity whose star only burned brighter after his service. Not only did he get back to recording music, he was also put on a heavy filmmaking schedule, and starred in formulaic musical comedies that were more or less dismissed by critics, despite Presley’s request to take on more serious film roles. The film is credited with making Ann-Margret a superstar during the mid-1960s, leading to her appearing with Presley in Viva Las Vegas. The soundtrack was released by RCA Victor in 1964. In 2006, the film was ranked number 38 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. Despite the film's box office success, it opened to mixed reviews, with unfavorable comparisons to the Broadway production. Some noted its mediocre production values, rewriting of the script, changes in the musical score, and disappointing choreography in some songs. The film was released in theaters on April 4, 1963. Plot Conrad Birdie, a popular rock and roll star, receives an army draft notice which is devastating his teenage fans across the nation. Albert Peterson is an unsuccessful songwriter in his family's business, although he has a doctorate in biochemistry. He schemes with his secretary and long-suffering girlfriend Rosie DeLeon to have Conrad sing a song Albert has written, but Conrad's conscription puts a halt to the plan. Rosie convinces Ed Sullivan to have Conrad appear on his televison show by concocting a big scheme for an ultimate gigantic promotion idea for advance publicity to capitalize on the situation of the most popular and beloved musical icon becoming a young war veteran. She explains that before Conrad goes into the big cold army for two long years...he sings a rockabilly song called "One Last Kiss" and then bestows a very public farewell kiss on one fabulously lucky high school girl randomly chosen from one million two hundred thousand hysterical adoring teenage female fans in the Conrad Birdie Fan Club. And, Rosie states that she built the entire appearance around the song and created a theme around it: first, they start off with Ed's intro to the lucky girl, her good luck speech to Conrad, then Conrad socks over a plug for army enlistments, bangs into the song, and he tops it off with the big kisseroo. Once that is a success, Albert will feel free to marry Rosie, despite his meddlesome mother Mae's long history of ensuring nothing will come between her and her beloved son. Sweet Apple, Ohio, is chosen as the location for Conrad's farewell performance. The random lucky girl chosen is Kim MacAfee, the fifteen-year-old president and recording secretary of Conrad Birdie Fan Club Number 2748. The operator tries to get through for nearly three-quarters of an hour, but the line's busy because Kim's gabbing on the telephone with her best friend, Ursula Merkle. Kim is telling Ursula that Hugo Peabody gave her his class pin on the backseat of that lovely yellow school bus, so they now have a permanent understanding and are going steady because it took their relationship to the next level, so that everyone knows they are a couple who have a pre-engagement commitment to each other because it's expected they will marry later on. Ursula is shocked that Kim is resigning from the fan club, giving up both the pledge and the Conrad Birdie fangirl scream of "AAAAAAA!" when he sings on television, but Kim insists that she will still play his records. The teenagers of Sweet Apple, blissfully unaware of their town's impending fame, are spending time on the telephone catching up on the latest gossip. Kim feels grown up, and declares that she knows how it feels to be a woman. However, upon hearing that she was chosen to receive Conrad's farewell kiss, Kim's expression changes from that of a poised woman to a dazed child, and is acting like a gaga little goof who became an immortal queen, as she slowly puts down the phone. On the day Conrad arrives in town, the teenage girls of the Conrad Birdie fan club excitedly sing their anthem to him in preparation of their hero's arrival to the small little town of Sweet Apple. But the boys in town, totally against the attentions the girls are showing Birdie, sing counterpoint about their hatred of Conrad because they despise him for their girls' love for him. Their argument comes to a head when the two mobs meet together. In a clever bit of direction, Hugo and Kim quickly become the ambassadors for each side. Conrad receives a hero's welcome in Sweet Apple, and the mayor presents him with a fourteen-carat solid gold key so generously donated by employees at the Sweet Apple Brass Works. Sweet Apple becomes a very popular place, but some of the local adults are unhappy with the sudden celebrity, especially after Conrad shows off his hip-thrusting moves while his song "Honestly Sincere" causes every female and a few males to faint. Conrad becomes a guest in the MacAfee house and irritates Mr. MacAfee by being rude and selfish. Under pressure from the town's notable citizens, Mr. MacAfee is unwilling to allow his daughter to kiss Conrad on television, but Albert placates him by telling him that their whole family will be on Sullivan's TV show. Albert reveals to Mr. MacAfee that he is actually a biochemist who has developed a miracle supplement: a super speed pill called "Speed-Up" that increases the work output of domestic animals because it speeds up the reflexes, so an ox could outrun a racehorse, while a hen will lay three eggs a day; they test it on the family's pet tortoise, which speeds off out the door. Mr. MacAfee is a fertilizer salesman and he sees a great future for himself in partnership with Albert for marketing this pill. Hugo feels threatened by Conrad and worries that Kim likes Conrad more than she likes him, but Kim reassures him that he is the one boy for her because he is the only one she loves, while Rosie feels like Albert does not appreciate her, so Albert persuades her to be happy. Albert's mother shows up, distressed to find Albert and Rosie together. Mr. MacAfee is also agitated, not liking the way Conrad is taking over his house. They lament what is wrong with kids these days. During rehearsal for the broadcast, an impatient Conrad kisses Kim and she faints, while Hugo is hurt over this, so he and Kim break up. Hugo goes to Maude's Roadside Retreat, hoping to get drunk and asks proprietor Charles F. Maude for a pint of bourbon, gin, a double rocks on the scotch, a beer, or a little vodka malted, and tries to convince the bartender that he's 32 by saying "I'm way over 21. I only look young from too much drinkin'." However, Mr. Maude can tell that he's under age and refuses to serve him. Albert is told that the Russian ballet has switched to a different dance that needs extra time, therefore eliminating his song and the farewell kiss to Kim. Albert does request to have the ballet shortened to at least four minutes so there will be enough time for Conrad to sing his song, but the arrogant ballet manager initially refuses to have it shortened as he believes that cutting time would mean "artistic sabotage" to such a classic piece of work. Albert decides to drown his sorrows at Mr. Maude's bar, because his attempts to convince the ballet's manager to shorten its performance failed. When he gets there, he discovers Mae there and asks her what she is doing in this place, Mae replies that she playing canasta with Mr. Maude because she got lonesome. When Albert asks Mae why is she consorting with the bartender, she reminds him looks aren't everything, and explains that Mr. Maude is a 100% gentlemen and was a widower three times. Rosie is fed up with Albert and his mother, so, hoping to forget Albert, she interrupts, dances, and flirts with a room full of men at a shriners convention meeting being held in Maude's private dining room, and they begin a wild dance. Albert rescues her from the crazed shriners when he overhears her singing "Everything is Rosie. Cha, cha, cha. 'Cause my name is Rosie.", he realizes that she's singing the song he wrote for her, which was only eight bars because he never finished it.The next day, Rosie comes up with the solution to get back Conrad's spot on The Ed Sullivan Show that evening. Before the Moscow Ballet performs "The Rose Adagio" from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, Rosie slips one of Albert's pills into the milk of the orchestra's conductor to hopefully speed up the ballet. The audience thinks it is the slowest dance they ever saw, since they think the ballet dancers move like turtles. However, it becomes the shortest ballet in history and they finish early because it causes the speeding ballet dancers to put out a brilliant, wildly rapid, and unexpected bit of a burlesque performance, which not only amuses the audience, but also offends the Russians, and places Conrad back on the show to sing "One Last Kiss". There is a last-minute scramble to fill air time, and Conrad does get to appear on the show and sing "One Last Kiss." Conrad is dressed in green-sequinned army uniform. He holds up his guitar and strums it once. Then, the band strikes up to play an old-time rock 'n' roll style song as Conrad begins singing in his signature Elvis-esque voice. As the band does an instrumental, he starts dancing around the stage in a very funky way, because the way he wiggles his waist is so suggestive that causes him to have swiveling hips. The band finishes their solo, and he begins to sing again. After the song, Conrad takes a comb from his pocket, combs his pompadour bouffant hairdo, and he puts one hand around Kim's back and the other around her hips, and swoops her off her feet as he attempts to symbolically bestow a farewell kiss on her. At that moment, Hugo, who can bear no more, runs onstage and rushes in front of the camera and interrupts the actual kiss by knocking out Conrad with a single punch on live TV. Albert tells Mae that he and Rosie are going to Niagara Falls, and Mae agrees by telling him "Well...it's about time", and Albert is very happy to hear that he is free to marry Rosie now. Mr. Maude tells Albert that he wants to do things proper and asks if he can have the honor of being Albert's stepfather, and Albert gives his blessing to allow this to happen, then Mae reveals that she is now married to Mr. Maude, even though she only met him the previous evening. Mae and Mr. Maude leave for Akron, where he has to open a new bar and he wants her to throw out the first beer can. Kim and Hugo reunite and fling their arms about their necks, which means that when Hugo decides to propose to Kim, she will accept him. Kim sings, "Everything is Hugo, I will go where you'll go. With a boy like Hugo, how could I be blue?", Hugo sings, "We will be so cozy, just like Al and Rosie.", and their duet verse is "And we're gonna mosey in a hot rod built for two." All of the couples live happily ever after. Cast of characters Janet Leigh as Rosie DeLeon Dick Van Dyke as Albert F. Peterson Ann-Margret as Kim MacAfee Jesse Pearson as Conrad Birdie Paul Lynde as Harry MacAfee Mary LaRoche as Doris MacAfee Bryan Russell as Randolph MacAfee Maureen Stapleton as Mae Peterson Bobby Rydell as Hugo Peabody Michael Evans as Claude Paisley Robert Paige as Bob Precht Gregory Morton as Maestro Borov Ben Astar as Ballet Manager Milton Frome as Mr. Maude Ed Sullivan as himself Trudi Ames as Ursula Linda Kaye Henning as Nancy Peter Menefee as Harvey Johnson John Daly as himself Kim Darby as a teenager Song list Bye Bye, Birdie The Telephone Hour How Lovely To Be A Woman We Love You, Conrad We Hate You, Conrad Honestly Sincere Hymn For A Sunday Evening One Boy Put On A Happy Face Kids A Lot Of Livin' To Do One Last Kiss Rosie Bye Bye, Birdie Reprise Differences from the stage musical In the film, the names of the characters Albert J. Peterson and Rosie Alvarez were changed to Albert F. Peterson and Rosie DeLeon. In addition to the name change, Albert is not Conrad Birdie's agent nor an aspiring English teacher but a talented research chemist who contributed to Conrad's initial success and therefore Conrad owes him a favor. When Rosie and Albert get back together at the film's end, it is because Conrad's being a guest in Sweet Apple is over as he goes into the army, not because either character had shown any growth The story and much of the dialogue was re-written so that The Ed Sullivan Show broadcast is at the end of the movie. It is at the closing of the first act in the stage musical. In both versions, Hugo refers to Conrad as a "thief of love" and prevents the kiss by running out on stage and then punches Conrad in the face as he leans in to kiss Kim, however, the results are different. In the stage show, Kim is very upset with Hugo for punching Conrad and resolves to leave Hugo by telling him that she never wants to speak to him again, as she dashes off while he follows her. Then, she laments her stupidity for having fallen in love with him, sneaks out of the house and heads to the Ice House, an enclosed low barn-like structure with one or two empty crates lying about, to party without adult supervision. Conrad and Kim are alone at the Ice House, as Conrad sits next to Kim and puts his arm around her. Kim realizes that she has nothing in common with Conrad, as the two are bored stiff. In an attempt to get away from Conrad, Kim says "I am not a chick. I am a fully grown woman of twenty-seven or twenty-eight and I insist on being treated as such! Conrad, you seem a bit nervous because you're trembling and seem uncomfortable with the fact that you're a few years younger than I am." Then, Hugo arrives to the Ice House, Kim spots him and claims she was intimidated by Conrad. "Hugo, darling, you're just in time! I can't tell you what humiliation I've been made to suffer." says Kim as she rushes and gladly returns to Hugo and flings her arms about his neck. At the end of the musical the sweetest thing happens: Hugo proposes to Kim, and she accepts him. In the film, things end on a brighter and lighter note for Hugo after he punches Conrad: he wins Kim's heart and the young couple is reunited. During the song "Rosie", Kim sings, "Everything is Hugo, I will go where you'll go. With a boy like Hugo, how could I be blue?", Hugo sings, "We will be so cozy, just like Al and Rosie.", and their duet verse is "And we're gonna mosey in a hot rod built for two." In the film, Conrad did not get tired of show business, but he did suffer the embarrassment of being knocked out with a single punch on live television before an audience of millions of viewers In the film, Randolph makes a stench bomb out of a chemical mixture of iron sulfide plus two parts H2SO4, and later sells his chemistry set to Albert In the stage musical, a curvy blonde tap dancer named Gloria Rasputin hopes to be Albert's new secretary, while in the film, a suave English teacher named Claude Paisley flirts with Rosie In the movie, Albert's mother, Mae Peterson, is annoying and insensitive, but is not racist, like is she is in the musical In the film, Mae shows up after the Ed Sullivan Show broadcast with Charles F. Maude the bartender, and informs Albert and Rosie that she has married him, and gives her son and his girlfriend her blessing for their long-postponed wedding The film version of the song “The Telephone Hour” incorporates split and multi-screen photography, after Ursula calls her friends and they call their friends. Suddenly, every teenager of Sweet Apple, including a suave fellow on a car phone who is surrounded by several tennis girls, is on every telephone catching up on the latest gossip: Hugo and Kim got pinned, so they have a permanent understanding. It also introduces Hugo, who makes an appearance singing, "You don't know how to live, you'd get pinned if you could. Kim and I are in love, going steady for good!", because he is trying to convince his buddies that he isn't off his gourd getting hooked up. In the musical, Helen, Nancy, Alice, Margie, Harvey Johnson, and a teen chorus are on the phones in box-like shelf unit with square-shaped sections where the actors could occupy while performing. As each actor sang their part, the light in their section would be turned on then off as the next actor sang. In the film, Kim and Hugo perform "One Boy" in the MacAfees' back yard. Trying to suppress Hugo's jealousy, Kim sings he is her "one boy". Hugo breaks in and offers a nice harmony creating a very satisfying sound. Rosie, who is obviously satisfied with their performance, but not so satisfied with Albert, takes on a verse. Finally, Kim joins her in a cleverly photographed finale in which we see the similarity of each woman's plight. In the stage musical, it is sung by a trio that is made up of Kim and two teenagers. In the movie, "Kids" was performed in the MacAfee kitchen by Mr. MacAfee, Mae, Albert, and Randolph. The song sets up a conflict of a distrust of children, that for no apparent reason, is totally resolved at the end of the song. In the stage musical, it is performed by Mr. and Mrs. MacAfee in the streets of Sweet Apple after they discover that Kim has run away, and lament how disobedient kids are today. In the film, "Put On A Happy Face" is performed by Albert and Rosie in the MacAfees' back yard. This song is a bouncy number because Albert's singing is supported by cute elements of animated smiley faces that he draws in the air, a ghostly dance partner who resembles a duplicate Rosie, and even one set of 'follow the bouncing ball' lyrics, which have no added value to this song. In the stage musical, Albert is at the train station and sings the song to a depressed young girl who is sad because Conrad's going into the army, and claims that she'll be too old for him when he gets out. In the movie, "A Lot Of Livin' To Do" is performed as a colorful song-and-dance number by Conrad, Kim, and Hugo at a teen dance in the soda shop, where Kim and Hugo are trying to make each other jealous. Conrad introduces this organized and energetic group dance number, which showcases a dance duel between Hugo and Kim. Kim sings "There are men with childhood behind them, handsome men from Yale or Purdue. Older men, and I'm gonna find 'em. I'm a-gonna have fun, gonna be wild, have my own way. I may break a heart a day. Drink champagne as if it were water, pink champagne. And after a few, Daddy, dear, you won't know your daughter." In the stage musical, it is performed by Conrad, Kim, and all the teenagers in the streets of Sweet Apple before they head for the Ice House. Kim's line is "There are men of nineteen or twenty, who are suave, reckless, and true. Older men who give a girl plenty." In the film, "Rosie" is sung in the outdoor theatre after the end of The Ed Sullivan Show by Albert, Rosie, Hugo, and Kim. Albert's mother issues are in the past, so he can now move to his real love, Rosie. His first step to securing her love is finishing the love song he began to compose long before. In the musical, Albert and Rosie sing it at the train station after he reveals to her that he got tickets to Pumpkin Falls, Iowa, where there is an opening in the teaching staff of Pumpkin Falls Middle School, and they prefer the applicant to be married. In the stage musical, Kim is a wholesome and innocent teenager who is a middle American sweetheart, while Hugo is a nerd. In the film, Kim is a sex kitten who is a sexy vixen ready to be unleashed and Hugo is a handsome teen idol. In the musical, Ed Sullivan is just a voice-over with the following line of dialogue: "So remember: Your surest way to the best, in color slides is to insist on the new Kodak! And now, the young man you've all been waiting to see. As you know, in just about fourteen hours, one of show business' brightest talents is going off to play a very special engagement. And tonight, before he goes, he wants to leave a certain lucky young lady with One Last Kiss. Ladies and gentlemen, we take you to Sweet Apple, Ohio, where a typical American family, Mr. and Mrs. MacAfee and their children, Kim and Randolph, are gathered to bid farewell to a typical American soldier, Conrad Birdie!" In the film, he features in a cameo appearance as himself. In the musical, Mr. MacAfee is eating a hurried breakfast on the dining room table that is elaborately set for breakfast for one with gleaming and sparkling silver china, a huge vase of flowers, and the works. Kim begins snatching up bread, butter, jam, salt, pepper, sugar, milk, and all the utensils, while Mr. McAfee manages to grab two fried eggs and is holding them in his hands and snaps them up. Mrs. MacAfee says that Kim's gone through lot a lot of trouble to fix a special breakfast for Mr. Birdie and wants to make sure everything's ready and waiting for him when he comes down. After all, he is a national figure and she wants to show him they know how to treat a national figure here in Sweet Apple. Then he says, "Last night I gave up my room to a guest who repeatedly referred to me as Fats. I slept on a camp cot. Outside my window, three sirens shrieked "We Love You, Conrad!" four thousand seven hundred and twenty-three times! I have just lost two fried eggs! And you don't offer an emperor a warm Seven-Up!" In the film, Mrs. MacAfee says "Harry, where have you been since supper?", while Mr. MacAfee replies with "In plenty of trouble, that's where. But I'm not now. No, sirree. Now look here, Doris. About that boy, he is an ill-mannered roll and rocker snake in a gold suit and Kim is only fifteen and I don't want her around him because who knows what that wiggler will do to our pretty young daughter. Tonight I had to wait until 6:00 for my supper, and that Peterson grafter was running up the bill with long-distance calls to New York, Chicago, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Hong Kong made on my telephone." Mrs. MacAfee reminds her husband that Albert offered to reimburse him, even though Mr. MacAfee doesn't take Diners Club cards. The following songs were omitted from the film: An English Teacher - It went away when Albert's profession was switched to chemistry A Healthy, Normal, American Boy - Reporters arrive with questions for Conrad, but Rosie, Albert, and the girls answer for him, pushing away tabloids What Did I Ever See In Him? - It continued the relationship set up during the song One Boy Baby, Talk To Me - Albert's beautiful song pleads for Rosie's love and showed growth, but that growth never happens in the film Kids Reprise - Hugo tells the MacAfees and the other parents that the teenagers have gone to the Ice House, and they all declare that they don't know what's wrong with their kids. Randolph joins in, stating that his older sister and the other teens are "so ridiculous and so immature". Spanish Rose - This song has Rosie declare she's Spanish with a deliberate comic exaggerated Hispanic style to irritate Mae. In the film, most of the song was replaced by dialogue and dance. Trivia The original stage version of Bye Bye Birdie opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in April 1960 to rave reviews, and at the 1961 Tony Awards, Bye Bye Birdie bagged four awards: Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography, and the biggest Tony of them all, Best Musical. With Bye Bye Birdie’s popularity, its creators, Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, and Michael Stewart tried to capitalize on its success and wrote a sequel called Bring Back Birdie that opened in 1981. The sequel focused on Conrad Birdie, who disappeared after being discharged from the Army and tried to make a comeback by performing at the Grammy Awards. Unfortunately, this sequel didn’t fare as well as its predecessor, and closed after only four performances. The original 1960 stage musical included 17 songs, the 1963 movie used 12 of the original tunes and added a new title song that appears at the very beginning and the very end, and the 1995 TV version included the 17 original songs, a re-arranged and re-written version of the title song written for the movie, plus three new songs that were added for this version and not included in any previous one. The director of the movie, George Sidney, was so very much infatuated with Ann-Margret and taken by her talents that he decided to highlight and showcase his new rising star by putting her front and center by changing her part from a minor character status of her singing featured in only two songs, as she is given a greatly expanded role as the main character in this adaptation of the story and she now sings in five of the songs in the film. As a result of this, the original stage musical's story and much of its dialogue was completely discarded and re-written as an entirely new script, while everyone else in the cast was reduced to supporting status and shunted to the background in addition to some of their characters' songs being dropped entirely. The movie's then newly-created but now legendary opening and closing sequences feature Ann-Margret alone on-screen while running towards and away from a bright blue background in a coquettish flirtatious dance and singing the newly-written the title song "Bye Bye, Birdie" directly to the camera that pushes in and pulls back on her. However, they are not used to tell a part of the story, but only as bookends to display her character arc development. In the first rendition of the prelude at the very beginning as a prologue, she is an immature, whining, and petulant little girl who is a young siren that has an unhealthy obsession with a star, and laments how dull her life will become without her un-ending adulation for Conrad Birdie, as she bids farewell to the army bound rock star. In the finale reprise at the very end for an epilogue, she has changed into a beautiful grown woman who has literally let her hair down and is now wiser and realizes her actual boyfriend is what's most important to her by moving past her teenage infatuation, since she wasted her time by being a Birdie groupie who was fangirling over some singer who could care less about her, and continuing with the rest of her life as she bids Conrad a defiant fond goodbye as he has now been enlisted into the army and ceases to exist to her. Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde, both veterans of the Broadway hit were displeased with the film version because they felt it had become too much of a vehicle for Ann-Margret. Van Dyke complained to his wife "They're making it a vehicle for Ann-Margret, and turning it into 'The Ann-Margret Show!'", while Lynde quipped "They should have retitled it 'Hello, Ann-Margret!', since they cut several of my and the other actors' best scenes and shot new ones for her so she could do her teenage-sex-bombshell act." Even though she didn't appear in the film, Susan Watson who created the role of Kim in the stage version later said "Anyone who likes the film clearly didn't see the show." Despite portraying the mother of Dick Van Dyke's character in the film, Maureen Stapleton is just six months older than Van Dyke. The TV movie version was a different, longer, and truer interpretation that was a much more faithful adaptation of the stage musical's basic storyline. Ed Sullivan was embarrassed by the Broadway production's choral hymn praising him and his weekly TV variety show as he was watching the play with his wife. He was quoted as saying "I only wanted the floor to open up and swallow us both." Even though Sullivan disliked being mentioned in the Broadway show, he actually agreed to make a cameo in the film, saying that his willingness to appear in the film would show the public that he was a relatable guy with a sense of humor. He later performed a life-imitates-art routine when he reprised the "One Last Kiss" segment for real when Gary Lewis, the lead singer of the band Gary Lewis & The Playboys, performed the song and kissed a fan, who was a lucky girl from Sullivan's audience to receive it, shortly before his actual draft induction into the U.S. army as part of a publicity stunt. The lead character, Conrad Birdie, is a parody of Elvis Presley and ironically, the show's producers originally wanted Presley as an obvious first choice for the role of Birdie because he was the inspiration for the story. Presley was interested, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, refused to let the rock-and-roll legend play a role spoofing himself, or any that would be interpreted as such. Jesse Pearson would appear in only one other film after this: Advance To The Rear, a military comedy with Glenn Ford, but he guest-starred in a few television comedy programs including McHale's Navy, The Beverly Hillbillies, and The Andy Griffith Show. The poet Rod McKuen who hired Pearson for voice work on his album The Sea Trilogy, wrote on his web site: "Jesse Pearson was a very talented man and deserved a much bigger and longer career than he had." Rita Moreno was the initial choice for the role of Rosie, but turned down the part, since she was disappointed in many of the stage roles she was getting because they were too stereotypical for her taste, and she didn’t want to be typecast. An episode of Mad Men paid homage to the sequence of the title song by having an advertising agency create an advertisement for Patio, a sugar-free diet cola marketed as a soda alternative for diabetics by pitching their product with the intended target of young women who are trying to maintain their figures as a tool for staying slim, while an Ann-Margret wannabe imitates the "Bye Bye, Birdie" song and recreates exact frame-by-frame copy of the sequence to the film in the ad with "bye bye, Birdie" changed to "bye bye, sugar" to assert how their product says "bye-bye" to extra pounds and inches. Ann-Margret has said that when she and her husband Roger Smith saw this tribute, tears welled up in their eyes because it was so kind and loving. In one episode of the BBC television program Keeping Up Appearances, the song "Put On A Happy Face" is used as dance music aboard the QE2 when Hyacinth Bucket finds out that her brother-in-law Onslow won a cruise from horse racing. Category:Movies